What We Have Been Doing While In Harlingen, TX.

                                    Tuesday 3/12/2013

We have had temperatures of low 70's to high 80's with no rain, since we have been at Lakewood RV Resort in Harlingen. It is generally very breezy to very high winds here. Today was a delightful day in the 70's with a very slight breeze.

This is a picture of one of my favorite permanent homes here in the park. They have built on another room that has a view of the lake behind them.

On one of our many walks around the park, Joe and I stood and looked at this large garden contraption. The owner stuck his head out the door and I asked him what it was.

Then his wife, Donna, came out, and told me it was called a "Tower Garden". Donna invited me to a presentation of the tower as she and her husband Steve sell them. The Tower Garden grows vegetables and herbs by aeroponic and hydroponic systems. It is really neat and I would like to have one, but I don't think Joe would go along with it, as he was having a fit about the three tomato plants I had last summer. Maybe someday when we get to a point where we only have a summer and winter spot and stay for six month at a time. Donna and Steve live in Michigan in the summer. They have their winter garden while here in Harlingen, then they tear it apart and start their summer garden in Michigan. If you want to learn more about the Tower Garden, you can go to this link : https://wright.towergarden.com/

                                                     

When I was a kid, I use to go to Clear Lake, IA. in the summers to see my dad. My mom and dad were divorced, so my sisters and I spent the entire summer at the lake. My grandmother Freemen had a home on the lake, so we stayed with her most of the time. She had a neighbor who also had her grandchildren off and onin the summer. When they were with their grandmother, we were invited to play Mah Jongg. Mah Jongg has always been a fond memory for me, so a few years back, I found a Mah Jongg set at a flea market.

I have been carrying it with me on our travels, thinking I would find time to figure out how to play it again.  I want to teach my grandchildren the game someday. ( I will get back to my story on Mah Jongg further down in the blog).

 

Just a picture out our Nest window one night when the sky had hues of pink.

Looking behind us from the window. As you can see we sit with no anyone around  us.

I can say today that I will successfully complete the 4 week diet without any sugar or grains, as of tomorrow. It definitely has not been easy. I had been on this diet 6 years ago, and it seemed so much easier than, then it did this time. I am suppose to do this diet once a year according to my preventive Dr. in Texas. I have not done it because it is not much fun to do. When you give up the sugars, carbs, and grains, the bad bacteria in your gut dies off. When they die off, you can have many unfavorable symptoms due to the toxins being dumped into your blood systems from the dead yeast. The symptoms I dealt with this month were headaches, irritability, (poor Joe), dizziness/lightheadedness, nausea, food cravings, decreased appetite, bathroom changes and bloating. There are other die off symtoms on the list, but these are the ones I experienced. I had a Magic Bullet that I use to make smoothies with, but it died last summer. I went out and bought the NutriBullet to replace it for this month. This morning I made a smoothie recipe that was in the NutriBullet recipe guide. It called for two handfuls of spinach, 1 orange with rind, 1/2 lemon with rind, 1/2 lime with rind, 1" chunk of ginger, sea salt and 2 Tbs raw honey. I couldn't have the honey, so I put in Stevia instead. It was not drinkable as far as I was concerned, but it did blend the orange, lemon, and lime rinds completely to my surprise.

Because I didn't want to just throw it out, I made ice cubes of it and will put a smoothie ice cube into other smoothies later. The smoothie tasted like you were drink straight up rinds. Yuk! I think one cube will be fine in other smoothies, because it will be diluted.

Instead I made a pear, spinach, water, almond milk, and stevia drink, (with about 2 Tbs of the previous smoothie drink added to it). This I could drink. What I do to get healthy!

I found a group of ladies who play Mah Jongg at Lakewood RV Resort every Tuesday and Thursday at 1PM. First you mix up the tiles.

It's like playing cards but with tiles and 52 possible hands. This is my card with all the hands I can try to play.

The tiles get stacked in two tile high rows around the 4 players.

Here are the tiles I drew today in one of my hands.

This is profession Mah Jongg. When I played as a kid, I don't remember it being this hard. I think the game I played back then had, maybe 15 different hands to play. The ladies have been very kind and patient with me as they have tried to teach me how to play the game. The hardest part of the game is to decide which hand to try for out of the 52 different hands. In this hand I was going for 4 flowers, 2 consec. of 4 numbers, and 2 dragons. Unfortunately my hand went dead, because the 3 red dragon were thrown on the board, and I could not pick them up because I didn't have a Mah Jongg. Then I had to throw out what I was trying to do and try to figure out a new hand. We play for two hour, which usually gives enough time to play 4 to 5 games. I feel sorry for the ladies, because they have to wait for me to try to figure what hand to try to play. ( Which puts a lot of pressure on me to hurry, which makes my head spin, and then I can not think straight). It is a fast playing game when you know what you are doing. This is my third week playing with the ladies. While I play Mah Jongg, Joe plays Texas Holdem. He is $70 ahead so far this year.
Tomorrow, Joe and I are going with Donna, and Steve and another couple to Mexico for the day. I also start tomorrow the 2nd month of the Yeast Free Diet. I can now have 1-2 servings of grains a week, as well as the proteins,veggies and fruits. In a week I will increase the Nystatin (med to help kill off the yeast) from 3 pills a day to 6 pills a day, which will increase the die off symptoms once again. (Why did I start this diet in the first place- to help the acid reflex, joint pain, and for general better health. If I had been doing this once a year like I was suppose to, for the last 5 years, I am sure the die off symptoms would be much easier to go through, than it has been. Hopefully I will remember this next year.